Blogging with a purpose

Katherine, on her own blog Sew Me Something Good, awarded us this award yesterday.

Thanks Katherine.

Now we have to list five blogs that we like that we feel deserve this Blogging for a Purpose award. Here they are:

Amanda at A Painter's Journey
Joanne at Words of the Wise Acres
Sheila at Greenridge Chronicles
Rebecca at Ipsa Dixit
Louise at Home is where the Heart is, and This is my Patch

Thanks, girls, for writing such meaningful words for us to enjoy. Please in your turn nominate five other blogs for the award, and, when posting the image on your blog, link back to Four Friends and a Blog.

Chocolate nut clusters

I made some sweet snacks today. We have two walnut trees, but I usually give away most of the walnuts. I know they're really healthy to eat, but I'm lazy when it comes to shelling them. However, when my husband brings home chocolate chips and starts cracking walnuts, I get the hint.

If you'd like to make these, you'll need about three cups of chocolate chips or malted carob chips (two 10 oz packets) and three double handfuls of roughly chopped raw walnuts. Actually, any nuts will do.


Melt the chocolate or carob chips in a bowl over a pan of hot water. (Please, no microwaves.)


Stir in the nuts until they're all coated.


Spoon blobs of mixture onto wax paper and leave to set. Refrigerate to speed things up.


Eat!

Contest results

March 31st was the deadline for my airplane knitting contest. I have drawn the winner at random from the list of commenters.

The winner is Noble Retrievers, but I don't have any contact info for that person so I hope they are still reading the blog regularly and will see this post.

So, Ms/Mr Winner, please email me at veganpal02 AT gmail DOT com with your mailing address so I can send you your prize.

I still haven't decided what I'll be knitting on the plane to the UK but I still have a few weeks to plan. Right now, I have to buy yarn (HAVE to) because I am going to a workshop on Sunday - THE Cat Bordhi is leading a full day class in making her moebius scarf - special cast on and all.

The Freedom Manifesto

Here is a book that I enjoyed immensely; my husband is reading it now (with hardly any arm-twisting), and he seems to be enjoying it as well.

The Freedom Manifesto: How to Free Yourself from Anxiety, Fear, Mortgages, Money, Guilt, Debt, Government, Boredom, Supermarkets, Bills, Melancholy, Pain, Depression, Work, and Waste

How's that for a title? This book provides interesting, thought-provoking reading as well as some laughs. I think it is a worthwhile read.

Warning: once you are finished reading it, you might just be tempted to take up gardening and learn to play the ukulele. I already do both those things, but have still been inspired in other ways.

Sock is growing

I am really pleased with the fit of this sock. (My husband commented that it will be very difficult to walk in with all those spikes - ho ho - what a joker!) It is growing faster than I expected, considering how tiny the stitches are, and how infrequently I am working on it.

Are you going to turn your lights off tonight for Earth Hour? People around the world are joining together to turn their lights off between 8 and 9pm this evening to save energy. Wouldn't it be great if companies were to do it too - just think of all those office buildings that have lights burning all night long!

A pretty lunch

I just had to photograph my lunch today because it was just so damn good-looking! (OK, not as good-looking as Johnny, or Colin, or Alan, but in their absence....you know!)

It is a yellow bell pepper, nested in shredded lettuce, and filled with a pate made from soaked sunflower seeds, carrot, lemon juice, garlic and seasalt, all blitzed together in the food processor. Then I poured some home-made salad dressing over the whole thing.

All raw, and very satisfying.

I like David Wolfe's "food triangle" that he diagrams in the Sunfood Diet Success System. His raw food triangle is divided into three segments - fruits, leafy greens, and fats (such as avocados, coconuts, and cold-pressed oils). Get a balance of these every day and you're doing well. This lunch fits the bill - fruit (pepper), leafy greens, fats (sunflower seeds, olive oil). And I finished it off with a couple of fresh Medjool dates for dessert.

Here's the young David Cassidy